"I know it's a touchy area, but what I can't do is spend a lot of time worrying about that," Stanback said.

However, a few council members are questioning the pending contract -- which involves studying how well city departments are run -- and are considering a move to rescind the recent council vote authorizing the hiring of the firm.

Williams played a key role in raising campaign money for the winning slate in last year's mayoral and city council races. That slate received about $93,000 in contributions from July 1991 through early October 1991.

Williams said Thursday that politics was not a factor in his getting the contract. He said the contract will provide Stanback with information on city departments that Stanback needs quickly.

"This is a fast-track situation," Williams said.

There was no competitive bidding for the consultant's contract. Stanback introduced the resolution allowing him to hire Hartford-based W & R Associates, and it was adopted unanimously June 8 through the council's consent calender process, thereby precluding any public discussion on the matter. Stanback said the contract with W & R is under negotiation and not yet completed.

When Stanback told council members that he wanted to hire W & R, he said they told him of Williams' involvement in the campaign.

"That's not enough for me not to hire him," Stanback said.

Perry denied that by awarding the contract to Williams' firm, she and the council were repaying a campaign debt. "[Stanback] said he was a qualified person and he was willing to defend it," she said.

She said that when Stanback told her of his preference, she

informed the city manager that Williams had been a campaign contributor. "I didn't give that as a warning, but as communication," she said.

Stanback said he first met Williams years ago, when Stanback was working in Washington, D.C. At the time, Williams was working as an aide to Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn.

Later, while Stanback worked in the Chicago city administration, Williams bid on consultant contracts that Stanback was filling. Stanback said he awarded those contracts to Chicago-based firms, but he became familiar with Williams' and W & R's work during that time.

The management study will examine how well city services are delivered, how money is spent, whether department goals are being met and the efficiency of the city's computer system. There will be six to eight consultants -- some of them subcontractors from Hartford -- working over the next few months studying all 19 city departments.

Council members, who have often complained about slow or incomplete responses from city administrators, said the study is necessary to help them understand how the government works.

"We need to find out the real skinny, not what's written down," said Councilwoman Elizabeth Horton Sheff. "We need to look at every nook and cranny of city hall."

They add that if they refused to hire both people who supported them during the campaign, and those who didn't, there would be few people left to hire.

"The issue is, do we exclude the people who helped us and who didn't help us?" Deputy Mayor Nicholas J. Fusco said.

Sending the contract through city bidding procedures, council members say, would have delayed the study and made it subject to the vagaries of the very administration that council members are trying to reform.

"To submit this through that process we would be picking a vendor in 90 to 120 days. We want the study done by then, and I believe the administration would impede the process," Fusco said. Some department directors hire vendors quickly, others do not, he said.

Veda Shimkowitz, the city's purchasing director, did not return several telephone calls Wednesday and Thursday for comment on the average bidding time for city contracts. Professional services contracts are subject to council approval but are generally not subject to standard bidding procedures.

Williams, who was Perry's campaign finance chairman, said he also raised substantial amounts of money for the campaigns of Dodd and Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

Besides raising money for Perry and the Democrats for Leadership team -- he would not estimate Wednesday how much -- he also gave a total of $1,450 to the campaign, and his associate, Jerome Hayes, gave $1,500.

In an interview earlier this year, Williams said the contributions to Perry and the Democrats For Leadership came from people who wanted change in the status quo. He said the contributions show the ideological chasm between the opposing camps during the campaign.